It has been my feeling for some time now that Google intends to replace the role of Government. This is not necessarily an entirely bad idea but only if they (It?) are more open about what they are up to.

“Although Google has funded both “conservative” and “progressive” groups, it does not disclose the relative proportions given to each, beyond the superficial symmetry, and the degree to which the groups tilt to the right or left in their agendas.

However, as noted by CMD’s Executive Director, Lisa Graves, “there really aren’t two proportionate sides to the facts about the climate changes that are underway, as to whether working people should be paid a living wage, and whether corporations should have to pay taxes just like working people do. By funding extreme groups on the right under the guise of a false equivalency, Google is enabling groups that seek to undermine government.”

As the ECB and US Congress continue to kick the unexploded debt bomb down the road, in ever more expensive yet shorter distances, do we need any more proof that humans, despite their seemingly limitless imagination and ability to “innovate” are, in the end, no smarter or dumber than any other biological population on the planet (and likely in the Universe). Greed is, at its root, a relentless and instinctual drive to satisfy basic needs in a world of scarce resources. We are no different than the humble zebra muscle, who, once introduced into the Great Lakes unopposed by predators, proceeded to cling on to everything that moved and claimed it as its own. When it comes to Homo Economicus Ignoramicus, one has to wonder if Louis Pasteur is in some way more to blame for our current problems than cheap oil as our apparent triumph over one of Nature’s favourite regulatory schemes has contributed greatly to the physical expansion of human markets thus putting unsustainable pressure on the resources critical to our survival as a species.

Goldman Sachs and their ilk may very well be doing “God’s work” in setting up a co(s)mic end game that will see a massive cull of the World’s population opening the way for the “Elites” to return to that extravagant lifestyle which allowed the Greeks in the first place – what with all that slave labour and free time to hang out in togas, think and get naughty with young boys and all – to bequeath unto us the mess that is Democracy.

Democracy flourished in great part thanks to democratic governments’ ability to make good on their debts to bankers compared to Monarchs and Despots. Think about that for a minute. Is not the crux of this present Mother of All Crises that the Money Lenders refuse to take responsibility for their credit-creating largess and expect the puppet governments whose strings they pull to use their arsenals (emphasis on arse) of men and machines (paid for with credit of course) to collect on debts that, to any rational, ethical, human being would have been obviously un-repayable from the get-go?Methinks that War is not politics by other means. It is banking.

The first time I saw Netscape was in the spring of ’94 on a friends 486. I shortly thereafter acquired a Pentium 75 ($5000!!!) with a 750 meg hard drive which is what a CD holds. My bandmates and I were stoked but somewhat bummed that 15 uncompressed songs or so would fill up the entire drive. It wasn’t until 2005 that I acquired all the gear required to record multitrack at home but in those short ten years the music industry was ravaged by downloading. We now live in a world where most of the pie goes to the lucky few who win the popularity lottery on YouTube or Mysapce. Everyone else has to deek it out in a vicious game of elbowing. There isn’t an indie band out there that doesn’t want to make it big and leave the gear hauling and shitty couches and fifth rate flea bag hotels behind. Those who say otherwise are lying! Anyways best of luck to them all as CD sales have collapsed and though iTunes keeps the flame burning it flickers precariously in the winds of change for the worst… Long gone are the passion, the anguish, the critique, the self-immolation of the music Cobain, Grohl and Novoselic unleashed on the world. Music has since shifted from a force capable of spearheading social, political and economic change to nothing more than a mere commodity consumed as a social fashion accessory at its best to a porn-like, fetishistic obsession at its worst.

Netscape and Mosaic went viral in 94/95. It really was the threshold of pre-Web and post-Web for most people which also marks a very important shift for the music industry. In a sense Cobain’s passing was the death knell of the music industry’s business model. Nirvana is widely recognized to have “saved” rock and roll but in essence Kurt wasn’t interested in being the son of Rock and so took it down with him to the grave. Let us pray that one day he may be resuscitated to save us from our musical sins.

Excellent Davos recap by Simon Johnson. In a nutshell: The world’s largest Banks and Corporations expect governments to slash public spending so that these governments can better absorb the crises that the Financial sector is busy setting up in the wake of the 2007-2009 credit crunch that they themselves created. This is the World we live in folks!